Dallas police Senior Cpl. J.J. Ehlinger chats with Lisa Wright at a “Coffee With Cops” session in South Dallas, one of the events designed to help officers better connect with neighborhoods they serve. (Photos by G.J. McCarthy/The Dallas Morning News)

Public Safety

DPD has evolved with more officers on streets, more technology and more contact with community advocates

Chief David Brown says he wants his department “on the leading edge” of using modern-day options to fight crime. The electronic weaponry is part of a broader strategy, rooted over the years as Dallas has put more officers on the streets.

It’s a far different operation from a decade ago, when the city was lagging behind its peers statistically. It was losing officers and reeling from inner turmoil and worrisome crime rates.

David Kunkle, who took over as chief in 2004 after stints running the Arlington and Grand Prairie police, says “the pressure to reduce crime was overwhelming.”

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He quickly shook up the command staff, and the city gave him hundreds more cops — so many that Dallas, from 2002 to 2011, greatly outpaced almost every comparable city in the percentage increase of officers per capita.

That’s the major finding of an analysis by The Dallas Morning News on public safety measures that dramatically have reduced the overall crime rate, a drop that began with Kunkle and has continued under Brown.

After all but missing out on the 1990s crime decline, city officials now boast that the violent and property crime rates have fallen more in the past 10 years than any other U.S. city with a population of more than 1 million.

Some of the drop came from creative accounting by the department in certain categories, according to previous reviews by The News. The department has defended its record-keeping practices.

Still, by the time Kunkle retired in 2010 and lost a bid for mayor the next year, crime was barely an issue.

That’s not how his tenure started. Back then, Dallas was seen as one of the nation’s most crime-plagued cities.

Kunkle relentlessly focused on data and policing hot spots based on real-time intelligence.

Brown, now in his fourth year, has lauded Kunkle’s efforts, as well as work by community partners and city officials to redevelop the city.

“I've seen great economic development work done in Dallas,” said Brown, a 30-year veteran of the department. “It's transforming areas of town much different than when I was a rookie cop.”

His mantra has been, “You can’t just arrest your way out of crime.” He is pushing for more technology, crime-watch groups and youth outreach.

He is increasing training for veteran officers. Detective jobs have been cut and task forces, designed to focus on certain crimes and investigations, are on the rise. Traffic citations are way down.

The Brown years have had some hiccups. Staffing at the 911 call center became dangerously low, affecting response times. The problem wasn’t fixed until after a woman, Deanna Cook, was found slain in her home in 2012, days after calling 911 during an apparent struggle.

Two Dallas officers were indicted in on-duty shootings in April after no such indictments for about 40 years. Brown’s reactions to some shootings — including swiftly firing officers and enacting a policy that limits foot chases — have rankled rank-and-file members.

The chief has continued to push for public support, relying in part on community events and a social media strategy. He also gets help from philanthropists. Nonprofit booster group Safer Dallas Better Dallas has paid for many of the department’s high-tech tools.

And the department is more involved with community advocates and victims.

One victims’ advocate, Lavinia Masters — who was raped in her West Dallas home by a stranger in 1985 when she was 13 — said Dallas officers were cold and uncaring to her.

That changed for her in 2006 when Sgt. Pat Welsh started a program to test backlogged rape exam kits, including hers. Now, the department seems to be kinder and gentler, she said.

“Victims now feel like they’re in a better place when things happen,” she said.

The number of shootings by police each year has remained fairly steady, hovering around a dozen a year since 2003. The number of assaults on officers, which dropped 27 percent between 2006 and 2011, has been ticking back up.

Police are writing less than half of the traffic tickets they once did. In fiscal year 2006-07, officers issued 495,000 tickets. During the last fiscal year, the total fell to just under 212,000.

Detective James Andrews monitors screens at the Dallas Police Department’s Fusion Center, from which tactical information gleaned from data analysis is passed on to officers in the field.